Question: Hello! I just wanted to ask about the plant of watermelon. You see, I'm a college student and I have …
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Question
Hello! I just wanted to ask about the plant of watermelon. You see, I'm a college student and I have a study regarding this fruit. This plant is known to have a diuretic property. I wanted to know the active constituent which is responsible for the diuresis of the plant. Hope you can help me. Thank you!
Answer
Dear bananinah, many times scientists seek the one active constituent that is responsible for the effect in question. This is really a trait of pharmaceutical companies and the methodology of hoping to extract and patent a solitary compound. The reality is it may be a combination of different compounds that actually produce the full effect that is being sought. In fact, many times preparations of the entire plant produce stronger effects than a single compound because the plant contains a suite of related compounds that work collectively to produce the action. I have not seen a paper that presents a specific diuretic compound in Citrullus lanatus. A well-known glucoside saponin that produces a vasodilatory action is cucurbocitrin. It is possible this compound produces some of the observed diuresis, but I do not know for sure. Best wishes.
